Count Your Blessings
by C.M. Kelly
Summary: Part 2: In the wake of her boyfriend's death, Fi hits the road with Jack to track down their mother. They soon find themselves in a small Indiana town where male bar patrons have been disappearing, and the siblings suspect a succubus may be responsible.
1. Chapter 1

Jack locked his eyes on the road, keeping uncharacteristically quiet. He was dwelling on the fact that he hadn't been able to comfort his sister after her boyfriend was murdered. Fi wouldn't let him. She just got in the car and told him to drive, so that's what he did.

It had been five weeks of living out of the Mustang and Jack and Fi had not found any additional sign of their mother's whereabouts. All they had was her lyric book, skewed with notes from what looked like decades of paranormal research. Fi was using the daylight to browse the book, occasionally turning it to the side as if there were something written along the margins.

Their first stop had been Black Water Ridge, Colorado - the coordinates Molly had left them - but they found nothing there but a wendigo. If Molly had been in Black Water Ridge at all, she had left no trace and was long gone. With no other leads, they stopped by their old house in Hope Springs to grab a few things, only to find the house had been foreclosed upon. All their belongings were gone, the house empty.

"We could scam enough money to buy it back from the bank," Jack had suggested.

"What's the point?" was Fi's only response.

So here they were, five weeks, seven states, and four monsters-of-week later, in their new home on wheels just as they had become accustomed to from years of touring with their mother. Except the Mustang was a bit more snug than the tour bus. There was no more retreating to one's room when the other was mad or upset. No more doors to close.

_And no more Ned to drive,_ Jack thought to himself, missing the luxury.

The siblings had debated stopping at the Bells' for a visit but decided against it. Fi didn't feel like explaining why she wasn't at school and Jack didn't want her to have to. She hadn't mentioned the incident once. She would occasionally clench her jaw as though she was fighting off tears while browsing through her cell phone. Jack assumed she must have been trying to delete Jesse's number, or maybe stopping herself from calling his voicemail just to hear his voice.

Jack's focus returned when he felt eyes on him from the passenger seat.

"You okay, Fi? Hungry?"

"Your eyes keep drooping. You're tired."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me," Jack smiled for reassurance, adding, "Besides, I should be the one worrying about you."

Fi didn't answer. She directed her vision back out the passenger window. This wasn't the time to talk about Jesse. Not yet.

Jack gave his sister some time to respond on her own, but he wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily.

"We're going to have to talk about this, Sis."

"If you're talking about Jess, no, we don't," she shot back.

"You're acting like it didn't happen. He was your boyfriend. He was killed, Fi, by the same supernatural piece of sh-"

"That got Dad? Is that what you were going to say?" Fi interrupted, her tone sharp.

Jack locked his jaw and looked back out onto the road ahead of him.

"They died the same way, you know. On the ceiling. I don't think there was ever a car accident. I didn't remember it until I saw him…" her voice trailed off.

Jack waited to speak. He let another moment pass before breaking the silence in the car.

"I know. I've known for about a year now. There was definitely a car crash, but I don't think that's what killed him. I remember the fire, Mom yelling. All of it."

Fi nodded, letting out a sarcastic laugh, then shook her head.

"When were you going to fill me in, Jack? Maybe I could have-"

"Saved him? Have you noticed that anyone we try to be with - you, me, Mom - they all get hurt? They all die. You ever wonder why that is?"

Fi acknowledged the question as rhetorical, but didn't answer for a different reason:_ You, me, Mom_. Gabe.

Jack was actually admitting that he lost her. He'd never brought up her death before. He wore her necklace everyday, and sometimes Fi caught him clutch the angel charm when he was trying to be strong, but he wouldn't talk about her.

Gabe had leukemia. Fiona had donated her own bone marrow to save her. An intervention that should have never been.

"Fiona?" Jack broke her thoughts, "Do you know why that is?"

"You really want me to answer that, Jack?"

"Because it would interfere with our responsibility," he answered for her.

"Our responsibility to find mom?" Fi played dumb. Even after all that had happened, she did not want to admit her destiny, or worse, have Jack say it out loud.

"You know what you are. What I am. And what we're supposed to do."

"Oh, you mean the whole 'avenge Dad's death, save the world' thing?" she said bitterly, her fears confirmed. Jack had somehow found out about the legend of Fionn and their true destiny.

"It's funny, Fiona. This used to be your whole world - all this paranormal, otherworldly missionary work. Now look at you, just another stuck up bitch with a scowl on her face who can only feel sorry for herself."

"Alright, that's it. Pull over. Pull over the car. Now!"

Jack did what he was told.

"This was a stupid idea," she said too-calmly, releasing the handle on the Mustang and slamming the door behind her. "I should've stayed at Stanford."

"You can't run from it, Fi," Jack shouted, "Wherever you go, whoever you meet, it's going to make your life a living hell."

Jack rolled the Mustang in pace with his sister as she began walking down the empty country road.

"Go away, Jack."

"Get back in the car, Fiona."

"No."

Jack let this go on for about a half mile before driving ahead, then pulled the car to the side of the road. For a second, Fi thought he was actually driving away. When she saw the car stop, she pivoted and began walking in the opposite direction. Jack was right on her heels.

"Okay, that's enough."

Jack grabbed his sister and threw her over his shoulder, unsuccessfully dodging her arms in her attempt to get away.

"Ah, you're embarrassing me, Fi," he said jokingly.

She grunted and gave a hard punch to her brother's back.

"Put me down, you jerk."

"Not a chance."

When they reached the car, he tossed his sister back into the passenger seat and closed the door. She didn't try to escape, but refused to look at Jack.

"You're an asshole," was all she said.

Jack smirked, and with a rev of the engine, the two continued on their road trip.


	2. Chapter 2

"Here we are, Fi, Clear Lake," Jack said, nudging his sister's arm.

"Great. Are we in Iowa or Texas?" she asked groggily.

"Does it matter?" Jack answered with a big grin, taking in Fi's annoyed expression with pride before adding, "We're in Indiana."

"And since I know it's not Mom, do I want to know what's in Indiana?"

"Well that's what we're here to find out."

Jack pulled the Mustang into a small motel with a pink, beat up sedan parked out front.

"Home, sweet home," Fi mumbled, fetching her bag from the trunk.

She walked to the driver's side door to see Jack shuffling his hand around his cigar box of ID and credit cards.

"Who are we going to be today?" Fi asked with a smile.

"Ah-ha!" Jack let out, seemingly finding the card he was seeking, "Mr. Francis H. Carpenter."

Jack held the card out to Fi.

"Francis?" Fi squinted at the credit card and laughed. "You know, Jack, I still can't get over the fact that the same kid who used to whine about trespassing grew up to collect fraudulent IDs."

"Yeah well, I still can't get over the fact that my sweet little baby sister isn't a virgin anymore."

Now was probably not the best time to mention that she hadn't been a virgin since her seventeenth birthday. They'd just driven for almost two days straight and she didn't feel like hitting the road again just so Jack could drive over to California and kick Clu's ass. She caught herself grinning and quickly thought up something to say.

"Just because you showed up at Stanford and there's a guy in his boxers in my bed does not mean anything happened."

"That's what I keep telling myself."

* * *

><p>Once they got to their room, Fi cracked open her laptop and plopped down on her designated bed.<p>

"So what makes you think we have a case here?"

"Three people have gone missing from this town - all men, all 23 years old, all disappeared within the last month," Jack replied, removing his jacket.

"Those odds aren't so bad," Fi quipped. "Who says it's not just some creep?"

"They all went missing after hitting up the same bar. Plus, no DNA, no bodies, and seemingly no evidence."

"Okay, so it's a professional creep."

"Or some hungry monster on a killing spree."

"With our odds, it's the latter. You know," Fi started, glancing down at the silver ring she wore on her thumb, "I've done so much to keep you and Mom away from this stuff. I gave up my research and my paranormal magnetism, I tried running away… yet here we are, not just stumbling upon the supernatural, but actually seeking out and _hunting_ it."

"Someone's got to do it."

Fi felt a pang of guilt in her chest, "If not me, you. Right, Jack?"

"Like I said before, there's no such thing as escaping this. Dad and Mom knew it. Heck, you used to know it. That's why I gave in. I knew that I could deny and rationalize all I wanted, but it wasn't going to do you any good. I had to protect you, Fiona. And good thing I showed up when I did…"

Fi tensed at her brother's last comment. Lately, she had been secretly wishing she had died in that fire with Jesse. It would be a much easier out than the alternative.

"I'm here for you, Fi. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you," Jack said, putting an arm around his sister's shoulder. "Hell, I don't care if it kills me, I won't let anything happen to you."

"Yeah, yeah, you too," she mumbled, feeling sappy. "Now back to the case."

"Let's start with the one lead we've got."

* * *

><p>Jack smiled wide as the siblings entered the small bar located a few blocks from their hotel. It was decorated with road signs and license plates and smelled like stale beer and cigarettes. Jack noted the only three patrons in the place playing pool next to a poorly lit stage in the back room. He rubbed his palms together as they took a seat on two nearby barstools.<p>

"What'll it be, Sis? Carpenter's buying," he said with a wink.

"Um, I don't know. I've never drank with you before."

"You're afraid to drink around me?" he laughed.

"It's weird! You've never seen me buzzed."

"Well if you're going to be tipsy around anyone, wouldn't you rather it be the one person who's got your back?"

"Fair enough. We'll take two shots of tequila to start, please," she grinned at the bartender.

"To start? You know, we are on the job here."

"Don't get lame on me now, Jack," Fi joked.

"So," Jack began to the bartender as he poured them their shots, "I heard a few men went missing from here recently? I'm not throwing out accusations or anything but, you didn't slip anything into my drink, did you?"

The old bartender didn't even smirk at Jack's joke and pushed the shot glasses in their direction.

"Five dollars," he grunted.

Fi giggled and clanked her shot glass on Jack's, "Salud."

"Ah," Jack sighed after feeling the sting of the alcohol on his throat.

"I wish Mom were here," Fi said mindlessly.

"Yeah I bet she does too," he quipped, nodding at the empty glasses.

"Addiction jokes. Funny… You think she's alright, wherever she is?"

Jack opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by a man in flannel suddenly standing behind Fi. His sister followed his gaze and swiveled around on her barstool to face him.

"Heard you two asking about the disappearances around here," the flannel man announced, keeping his eye on Fi.

Jack's protective instinct flared and he stood up to get next to his sister.

"Yeah," she said, shooting Jack a look to relax. "We uh, we know one of the guys. We came here to try and find him."

"That so?" flannel man said with a smug smile. "Which one's that?"

"Mickey," Jack answered for her, quickly recalling a name from the article he had read earlier about the disappearances.

"Huh," the man scoffed, still looking at Fi. "I bet you do. Bet you know Mickey pretty well, don't ya?"

"Listen, Buddy," Jack cut in. "Are you going to tell us what you know or are you going to stand here making googily eyes at my sister?"

The man in flannel tightened his shoulders as if he were ready to fight.

"Alright, guys, that's enough," Fi interjected, getting between them. "I'm Fi, _Carpenter_, and this is my brother, Francis. Sir, would you like to go speak about this in private?"

Jack's eyes became wide in protest.

"That would be nice. I'm Reggie. It's nice to meet you. Will you let me buy you a drink first?" asked the man, clearly elated to be talking to a pretty girl.

"Absolutely. Thank you," Fi gave her brother a stern look before excusing herself to the pool table with her new flannel-clad friend.

* * *

><p>Fi leaned against the edge of the pool table, which was now unoccupied, while Jack glared at her from his seat at the bar. He knotted his brow disapprovingly, observing his sister's cropped tank top that showed about two inches of skin just above her jeans. He wondered to himself if she had been wearing that this whole time before making a mental note to throw the shirt out at his first opportunity.<p>

"You said that's your sister, Son?" the bartender chimed in, apparently feeling chatty all of a sudden.

"Yes, sir."

The man shook his head, grinning, "Hm. She's a real knock-out. You're in for a lot of trouble with that one."

_Great, _he thought, taking a complimentary shot from the man. It was bad enough he had to worry about anything paranormal going after Fi. Now he had to add run-of-the-mill horndogs to the list.

* * *

><p>"Were these men friends of yours?" Fi asked Reggie, taking a sip of her beer.<p>

"Wouldn't call them friends, but I'd gotten used to seeing the three of them here once or twice a week."

"Mickey never talked much about his other friends," Fi said, improvising the assumption. "The other two, he was close with them?"

"Oh yeah. It seemed like it at least. They always came here together. Young guys, all three of 'em. Disappeared one by one. Mickey was the last to go."

"And when they came here, was it to play some pool, have a drink?"

"That, and the girl."

"A girl?"

"Oh… sorry, Sweetie. Is Mickey your boyfriend? Don't want to cause any trouble."

"No, no, no. Mickey's just a friend, that's all," Fi gave a convincing smile. "In fact, I'm not surprised he came here for a girl. Let me guess, he and his two buddies were fighting over who would buy her the first drink?"

"Actually, quite the opposite. All three of those guys were too nervous to even say as much as, 'hello.' They just watched her sing up on that stage, there."

"Oh, so the girl they came to see was a musician?"

"Sings. Plays acoustic guitar. She comes by here and plays for about an hour every Monday and Tuesday night. And her whole set, those guys hardly even moved an inch. Must have been big fans of her music."

"Interesting…" Fi finished off her beer and motioned to her brother that they should get going.

"You don't want to play some pool before you go?" Reggie asked, noticing her gesture.

"Hm, now that you mention it," Fi said with a smirk, "I've always wanted to try this game out. I've never played before but I'm a pretty fast learner. How would you like to make a friendly bet?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Two hundred fifty bucks. Not too shabby," Jack laughed, counting his sister's profits as they walked back to the motel.

"That guy was sweet but quite the gullible idiot, Jack. 'I'm a pretty fast learner.' God, I can't believe I stooped to your level."

"I can't say I'm not proud. So, what'd you learn about our vanished twenty-somethings?"

"Not much, except that they were all here to see some singer chick."

"Hm, maybe Singer Chick used her voice to lure them away one by one?"

"What, like a siren?"

"Could be," Jack said before letting out a slight laugh. "Hey, if that's the case we could just have Carey come screw it. Seemed to work the last time."

"Jack," Fi rolled her eyes. "Besides, it can't be a siren. Reggie and his friends were all there too and the singer had no effect on them whatsoever."

"Okay then, so what else we got in Fi's anthology of weird stuff?"

"That's a book that hasn't been cracked in almost half a decade. I'm rusty. I'll need my laptop."

* * *

><p>"Jack, check this out," Fi let out as she pointed at her computer screen.<p>

"This is an article from today's paper?"

Fi nodded, "It's another story about that kid Mickey."

"'Girlfriend of Local Man Begs For Tips Regarding Disappearance,'" Jack read aloud. "'Michelle Faith Hawthorne is asking the community to help her find her boyfriend of three years, Michael "Mickey" Andrews, who disappeared last Tuesday… Last seen at Horton's Bar...' blah, blah, blah…"

"'… _by music act, Tawny Wyatt_.' I looked her up," Fi stated, clicking on a tab on her browser. "You might want to cover your ears just in case."

Fi let the video play for about thirty seconds before Jack removed his fingers from his ears.

"Anything?"

"Well, she's definitely hot."

"That helps…"

"She's got a good voice but no siren-like effects thus far."

"So, can we entirely rule out the siren theory?"

"I'd say so."

"So what else could be going on here?"

Jack took a moment to brainstorm. "Did your new buddy say anything about what this girl did after she was done playing? You said the guys wouldn't approach her, but what about her? What'd she do? From the looks of that bar, her crowd was probably pretty scarce, right? Don't you think she would at least mingle a bit?"

"If that were Mom, she would definitely hang out for a little while and greet the fans…"

"Have a drink or five, talk about the songs, ask them what they thought… maybe she saw something that she didn't want to tell the cops about?"

"Looks like we know who we need to meet next."

* * *

><p>"Yes, I remember them. They'd come here to watch me play," a pretty auburn-haired girl about Fi's age said sadly from behind a glass of water.<p>

"We hear they were big fans of yours," Fi followed up.

The girl nodded slowly in agreement.

"I'm glad we caught you before you went on tonight," Jack said, turning on the charm. "We hear you're an amazing performer."

"Thanks," she answered, a blush coming to her cheeks as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "I try."

Fi glanced over at her brother, currently grinning like a moron, and gave him a slight nudge to remind them they were working.

"If only they hadn't been too chicken to tell you themselves," Fi tried to keep her voice steady. Something about this girl was sending up red flags, if only she could place why.

"I know, right?" Tawny laughed. "It was like they'd never seen a girl before."

"Did you ever introduce yourself to them?"

"Of course. Like you said, they were fans. I don't have too many people coming to see me play around here."

"That's too bad," Jack put in without missing a beat.

"Right," Fi gave him another warning glance. "So what did you talk about? Just your music?"

"The conversation was a bit one-sided at first, but as I saw them, week-by-week, it started to even out. Mickey was the most talkative, which isn't saying much. He'd tell me about work, some online course he was taking, and-"

"How about a girlfriend? Did he ever mention her?" Fi cut in.

"Michelle is crazy, okay?" she spat back, startling the siblings with her sudden mood swing. Jack mouthed "wow" in Fi's direction as Tawny twisted a napkin, calming herself. "Sorry," she continued. "That's a sore subject. Mickey's girlfriend came down here one night and cussed me out in front of everyone. She called me a slut and told me to lay off her boyfriend. She was convinced that Mickey and I had a thing."

"A thing?" Fi questioned.

"She thought he was cheating on her with me! We'd hardly even spoken. Can you believe it?"

"Well, is she hot too?" Jack asked, resulting in an elbow in the side from his sister. Tawny seemed too caught up in his compliment to notice.

"Tawny, can you tell us what you were doing when the first guy went missing?" Fi asked.

"Same as always. Hung out here, drank some beers. He was still here when I left."

"And you never saw anything suspicious?"

"Nothing."

"And the same thing happened the next week? These guys still came out to this bar?" Fi chastised.

"I guess seeing me play made them feel better. I wish I could have stopped each one of them from leaving here... had I only known..."

Jack reached out for the girl's hand. Fi rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Tawny, that will be all. Thanks for talking to us. And have a good show," she said, pulling her brother away by his arm.

"Wait!" Tawny let out before Jack could be moved. "Francis, aren't you staying for my set?"

Jack shot a pleading look at Fi, to which she gave a reluctant response, "Okay, _Francis_. Three songs, tops."

* * *

><p>As the siblings drank their beers and bobbed their heads to the acoustic guitar, Fi listened closely to the not-so-profound lyrics of Tawny Wyatt, "<em>You're the man of my dreams and the man I want in my jeans, if you know what I mean.<em>"

_Dear God,_ Fi sighed, refocusing her attention to elsewhere in the room and hoping these were three very short songs.

The singer would occasionally slip up, missing a note on her guitar, or pausing to fumble with the capo, only to have the prominently male audience laugh it off, finding her cute. When she accidentally broke a pick, she tossed a piece to Jack who immediately tucked it away in his back pocket.

Jack led every applause up until the agreed-upon three song cut off, when Fi successfully pulled him away and out of the bar.

"I know, I know. She's pretty. But we have work to do here, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jack groaned.

"What'd you think of her story? Seemed kind of suspicious to me."

"Fi, how was any part of that story mildly suspicious? Well, besides the crazy girlfriend thing but that's hardly paranormal."

"I don't know, Jack. Something's just not sitting right with me. I want to talk to someone else - someone who knows more about her."

"So who would that be, Mickey's girlfriend?"

"I think she's the closest thing we have to a witness at this point."

"Or a suspect…"

"Good point."

"Wait," Jack stopped in place. "What if she's after Tawny?"

"You just want an excuse to stake out outside Tawny's place, don't you?" Fi teased.

He chewed his lip, "Do you think she'll find that romantic, creepy, or mysterious?"

Fi laughed, "Just go back inside, do what you need to do."

"You going to be okay holding down the fort all alone?" he asked her.

She responded by pulling the handgun from behind her back, adding, "I'll be fine. Just, be careful, okay? It's not the girls who have been going missing around here."


	4. Chapter 4

After the bar had closed and its patrons all dispersed to their respective cars, Jack rolled the Mustang close to Tawny's apartment building. He had planned on offering her a ride home but failed to find her before she hopped in another car in the lot, so he'd opted for skillfully following her ride back here, undetected. Flicking off his headlights, he and the car idled. He saw a light come on from a second floor window, and he observed Tawny's slim silhouette.

"Nice…" he grinned, suddenly alert.

He watched the girl draw her curtains closed and move from room to room. She began to undress when she walked over to a side lamp and the apartment went dark.

"Damn."

Jack held his watch up, observing it to be after two in the morning. His eyelids started to feel heavy and he began searching for the thermos of coffee on the back seat with his fingertips. After some time, he finally found it and struggled to get a blind grip.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Jack jumped and instinctively reached for the gun in his belt when a female voice emerged from outside his window.

"Tawny," he relaxed, seeing the girl peaking curiously into his car. "I, uh, I met a girl, after I left the bar. She told me to meet her here. You live here too? Small world…"

"Cute," she smiled flirtatiously, showing her teeth. "Especially since the only other women in this complex are an eighty year old and a mother of six. So which was it?"

"Actually," Jack started, fighting off the blush trying to appear on his cheeks, "who I was really hoping to see was this hot singer I saw performing at this dive bar down the road."

"Hm, a singer?" she answered playfully, then put her hand on his car handle. "She any good?"

"Eh, I'd definitely like to see more of her, that's for sure."

"Mm, I was hoping you'd say that," she purred.

Jack gladly allowed her to enter the car, where he pulled her directly onto his lap. She wasted no time, lifting her skirt back and pulling his head into a kiss simultaneously. She undid Jack's belt as he ran his hands through her hair. Her thighs became tight against the sides of his legs as she swung her hips in small circles.

She pulled back suddenly, grinning in a way that made Jack uneasy. In unison with a soft giggle from her lips, he felt a sharp pain in his side.

"Wait," he breathed out, closing his eyes tight from the throbbing pain that was now moving up into his arm. And when he opened his eyes, Tawny was gone. He looked out the window, his green eyes darting around in confusion.

There was no sign she was ever in the Mustang. His belt was still done. The car door was shut. Jack couldn't remember falling asleep, but it must have been a dream. So why did his side hurt so badly?

Jack lifted his shirt, trying to locate the source of the pain. Finding no bruising, he removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeve - nothing.

He returned immediately to the hotel, careful not to wake Fi. He clutched his side as he gently laid back in bed. Something wasn't right.

* * *

><p>Jack was woken up by the rhythmic tapping of computer keys. He squinted at his sister, who paused as soon as she observed the pained expression on his face.<p>

"You alright, Jack?" she hurried over to him. "What happened? Why didn't you wake me when you got home if something happened?"

"Nothing happened. I was staking out outside Tawny's place. I fell asleep, and I, I dreamed about her," he mumbled, looking confused.

"Can't say I'm surprised," she joked, trying to mask her building concern. "Please, spare me the details."

Jack didn't even try to crack a smile. He would normally make more of an effort to pretend he was okay for her. Something was definitely wrong.

"No, I dreamed she got into the Mustang with me outside her apartment. She had this look- ah," he winced as he tried to get out of bed.

Fi instinctively put a hand over his, pressed against the source of the pain. "Never mind, Fi, there's nothing there," he said, pushing her hand away. "I must have just slept on it wrong. You know how sleeping in that car can be."

"Jack, what if she hurt you? She could be a witch. She could've put a hex-"

"Fiona. If I say it's nothing, it's nothing. Okay?"

"If you say so," Fi eyed him suspiciously. "I'm going to talk to Mickey's girlfriend Michelle. She agreed to meet me at the diner down the street in half an hour. I told her the missing person's blog I run is posting his story."

"Great, I'll go with you," he said, unsuccessfully attempting to sit up.

"No. You're staying here and getting some real sleep. I can't have you gimping around town and botching our case, old man."

"Fi, I'm not letting you interview a suspect on your own."

"Too bad."

"Excuse me?"

"Listen, Jack. I'm not fourteen anymore. I can handle myself."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't have to… If anything happens, you call me," he commanded. "Even if you just get a bad feeling. Okay?"

"Alright," Fi murmured, collecting her purse and jacket.

"Hey! Anything at all. You hear me?"

"I said, alright!" Fi shouted, shutting the hotel door behind her.

* * *

><p>A mean-looking blond approached Fi's table, throwing her purse down in the seat across from her.<p>

"Michelle?" Fi asked, expecting the girl's demeanor to be much more pleasant.

"Hey," the girl's voice was hoarse, "Fiona, right?"

"Right… I appreciate you coming down here to speak with me."

Michelle's expression softened as she nodded and clutched a newly poured mug of coffee.

"Sorry, haven't gotten much sleep lately," she explained, just as Fi was observing the bags underneath the girl's eyes. "Everyone thinks I'm crazy. They say Mickey just ran off. I doubt they're even looking for him anymore."

"Well that's why I'm here. We're going to get his photo out there. Someone has to know something."

"Oh, I know who knows something."

"Who?" Fi leaned in.

"Tawny Wyatt. That slut who sings down at the bar."

Fi raised an eyebrow.

"So you know Tawny?" she asked.

The blond nodded.

"Michelle, I'm going to be honest with you. I've already met with Tawny Wyatt, yesterday. I took a statement from her."

Michelle stayed focused on her hands, finishing off the last of her caffeine. Fi couldn't tell if the girl was ignoring her or trying to restrain herself from knocking her out.

"Um," Fi continued carefully, "she said, you two had some bad blood."

"Ha!" Michelle startled Fi with a sarcastic laugh which echoed in her mug. "Yeah, something like that."

"Would you like to tell me your side of the story?"

"What's this have to do with Mickey?"

"Nothing really. Just curious, I guess. What would make you go down to the bar and accuse her of trying to steal your boyfriend?"

Michelle appeared embarrassed at the mention of the event and took a moment to conjure a response.

"Listen, I never saw it happen, any cheating I mean, but, Mickey started to talk in his sleep… if that's what you want to call it."

"I'm sorry, I'm not following. What's talking in his sleep have to do with Tawny?" Fi asked, confused.

"He'd… he'd moan her name," Michelle sneered.

"Oh," Fi let out, feeling awkward. "Michelle, I'm sorry in advance for saying this but, who's to say he wasn't just dreaming about her? That wouldn't exactly be Tawny's fault…"

"It was the look on his face when he did. Sometimes his eyes would even be open. It's like, she was actually there, as if it couldn't have been just a dream."

"And you never saw her?"

"You mean, like, in the bed with us?" the girl cocked an eyebrow. "You think I wouldn't have noticed a girl having sex with my boyfriend right next to me?"

"Okay, never mind. I'm just trying to piece together why dreaming of Tawny would be considered cheating in real life."

Michelle sighed and quickly shifted her eyes.

"There was something else wasn't there?" Fi pried.

"I… it's not my place to talk about it."

"Michelle, please. This could be the key to finding him."

"She gave him something."

It took Fi a moment to catch what the girl was implying. "Oh. How do you… Do you know…" she stuttered.

"Well, the first sign was when he stopped wanting to… you know. Then, he got sick, kind of like he had the flu. He would sleep constantly, and get fevers. He'd shiver. He just kept getting weaker."

"Weaker how?" she questioned, thinking of Jack's symptoms earlier that morning.

"I was so stupid," the girl went on, ignoring Fi's question, "I took care of him. I really thought he was sick. He'd complain that he could feel his liver hurting. Every other possibility crossed my mind: alcoholism, drugs. I didn't know what was going on. Then he'd call for her in his sleep. And when it got to the point where he could hardly move anymore, and he'd still insist on stumbling back to that bar to see her sing… That's when I put it all together. He was sick from whatever she gave him, so he didn't care if he slept with her, instead of me…"

"Michelle, I read the article in the paper. You never mentioned anything about these symptoms in regards to his disappearance."

The girl's expression saddened. Her eyes stuck to a spot on the table. "I didn't want people to know. I still love him. I didn't want to embarrass him."

Fi swallowed hard, "I'll leave that stuff out of my missing person's article on him, I swear."

The girl mustered a smile, which Fi reflected back, though she had a horrible pit in her chest at these latest revelations.

"Okay, that aside, what does this affair have to do with Mickey's disappearance? Do you think he was with Tawny when he vanished?"

"Yes. Like I told the police, I heard him come home from the bar that night. I could have sworn I felt him climb into bed. But when I turned on the light, no one was there. It was like no one had been there at all. The blankets were flat, his keys weren't in the kitchen like usual… I think he had come home, crept back out to be with her... and never came back."

Fi looked up from her notes, unsure of what she could say to this poor girl. Had she not been so open to the paranormal, she would probably agree with everyone else that Mickey Andrews simply ran away. But how did he end up with this debilitating "disease" from a girl he hardly talked to, that he only dreamed about being with?

"He wouldn't take off, Fiona. That's not like Mickey. Even if he was cheating, he wouldn't just run off without a word. Tawny admitted she was the last one to see him at the bar. She went in for questioning, but police found nothing suspicious about her account and there was no evidence of him on her or in her car… It just doesn't add up."

"Yeah, something isn't right," Fi responded, channeling her uneasy feelings from earlier. She was overcome with the need to get back to her brother before he had another dream.


	5. Chapter 5

Back at the hotel, Jack was sleeping well despite the sunlight peaking through the thin window curtains. He recognized that he was dreaming as soon as he found himself back in the Mustang.

"Where were we?" asked Tawny, suddenly straddling him once again in the front seat. She handled him gently, as if she knew his side was still pulsing with pain. "You have the most beautiful green eyes," she hummed before grazing his bottom lip with her teeth.

Jack ran his hand along her arm, following it to where her hand rested upon his cheek.

"I love you," she whispered in his ear, letting her breath tickle his neck.

"I love you, too," he responded without meaning it. He figured he could tell dream-Tawny whatever she wanted to hear without any real world repercussions.

He felt heat rise in his cheeks, becoming increasingly hotter with each kiss.

Too hot.

The heat spread to his forehead and he could feel beads of sweat beginning to form. His back started to heat up as well. Jack separated his lips from Tawny's to focus on finding the roll-down lever to his car window, only to find it was gone. As his panic became apparent on his face, Tawny laughed. Jack pushed her into the passenger seat, her hands still reaching for him. He tugged on the car handle, desperate to escape the vehicle and get out into the fresh air.

The door wouldn't budge.

_I'm dreaming_, he suddenly reminded himself. _I need to wake up._

* * *

><p>"Jack!" Fi shouted, almost on the verge of tears. "Wake up, Jack!"<p>

Her brother tossed in his sleep, his brow tight as if he was in severe pain. She shook him as hard as she could, pulling him into a sitting position and hugging him closely to her chest. His body was radiating heat.

_Fever_. The thought crossed Fi's mind as she recalled Michelle's words just minutes earlier. Jack was experiencing the same symptoms Mickey did.

Feeling his heart pump against her chest, Fi laid her brother back onto the bed and ran to the bathroom. She grabbed the waste bucket and filled it to the brim with cold water. Taking a step past the bathroom's doorframe, she splashed the bucket's contents onto Jack's face.

His body shot up with a start, to which Jack instantly clutched his side and rolled over in pain.

"Jack!" Fi gasped, relieved to have woken him but afraid for him nonetheless. She ran to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, tears beginning to fall from her eyes.

"It was her again, Fi," he said through sharp inhalations of breath, water dripping from his mouth and hair.

"What was the dream about this time, Jack?"

"Same."

"Meaning…"

"You said to spare you the details."

"Was she trying to seduce you?"

Jack let out a laugh at her choice of words, which was quickly cut short by another shooting pain in his side. He rolled onto his back before answering, "Didn't take much seducing."

"So screwing dream-Tawny left you physically sick in the real world," she said, moving back to her laptop. She clicked away at the keys for a minute, her eyes focusing on the screen.

"More this time than the last. I think I'm burning up…" Jack pressed a palm to his forehead.

"You have the same exact symptoms Mickey had before he went missing. His girlfriend thought it was the flu… or drugs," she explained, typing vigorously.

"I don't do drugs, Fiona, and I've had the flu. This isn't the flu."

"I know. I don't think that's what caused it. Michelle tried explaining that she knew Mickey and Tawny were hooking up, but there was no evidence that it was happening in real life."

"In real life? Fi, you can't be thinking what I think you're thinking."

"He'd call out her name in his sleep. Sure, he'd go see her in person, but all they'd do was talk. She'd wait until he was sleeping and attack him there."

"Really? You're going with the slutty Freddy Kruger theory?"

"Jack. The dream visits from Tawny, the symptoms. It's a pattern, her M.O. She sleeps with guys in their dreams and they wake up significantly weaker, sicker, every time."

"What are you implying Fi? That dream-Tawny gave me some kind of dream-VD?"

"Worse. Here," Fi let out, raising her hands off the computer keys. "Succubus. The female counterpart to an incubus."

"Like a cover band?"

"No, like a succubus," she shot back, swinging the laptop screen in his direction to show him the accompanying illustration. "It's a type of demon seduces men through their dreams."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Jack smirked.

"Yes, and I'm sure having a dream girlfriend is very convenient for you. However, the part that concerns me is her reputation of screwing her victims to death."

"Literally? Or are we talking porn terms?"

Ignoring him, Fi continued, "It says here that succubi leave a token to track their victims. That's how they know you're sleeping and vulnerable for a dream attack."

The siblings took a moment to think. "The pick," Jack finally spat, reaching for his pocket. "That bitch!"

He tossed the piece of pick into the ash tray on the night stand and melted it with his lighter.

"Maybe you shouldn't have been acting like such a groupie."

"I can't believe I was duped by a hot-girl-wearing hell spawn."

"Hot-girl-wearing... Jack, you're right. I didn't even think of that. She could be possessing some innocent girl!"

"Okay, okay. We don't know that yet, just, first things first. If Tawny Wyatt is a succubus, how do we gank her?"

"According to legend, we can't. There's a bunch of things that can hurt her though. She'll react to holy water. Maybe if we use enough of it-"

"Fi, I've taken on some big fish since you've been gone, but demons? This is a whole new level. We're going to need to come up with something better than a splash of water."

"Maybe there's something in Mom's book?"

Fi grabbed the lyric book from her overnight bag and flipped through it with her thumb.

"Jack," she froze, stopping on a page and taking a seat beside him. "Look."

"'It was the same thing Rick tried describing to me those years ago, though at the time I shut him out,'" Jack read aloud. "'It took a handful of my hair and spat in my face, its eyes turning black from the tear ducts all the way to the outer corners. I pressed my cross to its skin and it laughed. However, the silver of my ring burnt its face, giving me enough time to escape.'"

"'I wanted to kill it but I didn't know how, so I fled. I wasn't going to let this demon take me from my babies that easily,'" Fi read the last line of the entry with wide eyes.

"Silver?" Jack repeatedly quizzically. "If this demon from Mom's book is the same kind we have here, do you think that'd be enough to kill it?"

"I guess we're going to find out."


	6. Chapter 6

Hidden behind a garage adjacent to the dive bar, Jack and Fi waited until the last light was turned off. The old bartender the two had encountered the day before had left almost ten minutes ago, waving to a figure still inside as his old truck sputtered off onto the main road.

Finally some minutes later, Tawny exited the bar through the back door, stringing along a thin man Fi instantly recognized as one of Reggie's friends by the arm. The two laughed as she drew some sort of directions in the air and motioned for the man to follow her car.

The Mustang tailed them just closely enough not to be detected. Jack eased off the gas as the nearer car's tire began to thump repeatedly. Fi grinned, still twirling her pocket knife between her fingers.

The thin man got out of the car and attempted to flag them down for help, but the siblings couldn't waste any time now. They continued to stalk Tawny to a dirt road about a mile out, when they lost sight of her tail lights. Assuming she must have shut off her car, the siblings cautiously approached the clearing up ahead.

Upon getting closer, they realized that the clearing was actually a broad lake. Even in the dark, the water appeared oddly murky, hardly reflecting the moon above them.

"This must not be the one the town's named after," Jack whispered.

Fi squeezed her brother's wrist to shut him up, and before he could react, he was taking on her serious expression. About thirty feet away were seven mounds of earth that resembled freshly covered shallow graves.

A sudden soft groan from the ground directly behind them sent the siblings stumbling backwards. Both hit the dirt with a thud and immediately pedaled themselves even further away with their feet.

Wide-eyed, Fi mustered the courage to crawl over to the spot where they had stood. Jack drew his gun and extended it with a shaky hand. Fi gave a sharp gasp in reaction to her findings and Jack quickly made a move to join her.

"What? What is it?" he stuttered as he slid towards her.

"Mickey Andrews," Fi breathed in response.

In the open shallow grave before them lay the missing man, blue in the face but somehow maintaining enough life to shift his eyes between the two of them.

"Jack, help me!" Fi hissed, grabbing a hold of the man's left side. "It's going to be okay," she reassured him. His skin was ice cold, his body stiff to the touch.

Jack wedged an arm under Mickey's back and lifted the him out of the dirt, when a shrill scream echoed on the lake. It was coming from somewhere nearby, and judging from its increasing volume, vastly approaching. They gently placed Mickey against a nearby tree and drew their weapons, darting their eyes across the darkness for the figure they had come for.

In her peripheral vision, Fi watched her brother pour a flask of holy water onto the torn piece of cloth he held tightly in his fist.

"Hey! Is that the shirt I was wearing yesterday?" she let out in an angry whisper, observing the familiar pattern of the fabric.

"It was slutty. Now shut up!"

"That was my favorite shirt, you dick!"

"Holy water? Well isn't that cute," Tawny interrupted, suddenly standing behind them.

Fi spun around and aimed, took a shot.

Tawny winced but quickly retaliated. She extended her palm outward and sent Jack flying into a nearby tree trunk. He hit hard and was instantly knocked unconscious from the impact.

Fi didn't let Tawny's attack on her brother hinder her fight. She snatched a vile of holy water from her boot and pulled the cap off with her teeth. She turned violently, hoping to catch Tawny in the face, but Tawny was nowhere in sight. Fi unhitched the hunting knife from her belt and dumped the holy water on either side of its silver blade. She moved quietly along the area surrounding the lake but couldn't find any trace of Tawny Wyatt.

From her left, she heard Jack cry out in pain. She was careful not to immediately run to him as her instincts told her to, anticipating a trap. She slowly made her way to her brother's side and noticed his eyes dancing behind his eyelids.

He was dreaming.

"Shit!" Fi spat, throwing the knife to the ground so she could shake Jack awake with both hands. "You bitch, you leave him alone in there!"

* * *

><p>Jack crouched close to the ground, extending his pistol towards any dark area from which Tawny could possibly emerge.<p>

"Fi?" he whispered.

He couldn't figure out where she had gone. One minute she was by his side, the next he was being catapulted through the air. His back ached, but at least the impact didn't knock him out. He had gotten himself back onto his feet almost instantly after hitting the ground, but when he returned to the spot he had last stood with Fi, she and Tawny were gone.

Not many things on this earth made him truly angry, but not having Fi in his sight was definitely one of them. He had gritted his teeth for years while she was away, and now once again he clenched his jaw and felt his body tense.

"What'd you do with her, you stupid bitch?" he growled into the open air. "You better show your face, I swear to God."

"Na-uh-uh," Tawny smiled from the edge of the lake. "Taking God's name in vain? Jack Phillips, how could you?"

Jack charged at her, ripped his knife from its holster and raised it, ready to draw it downward and into her neck, when she somehow disappeared and reappeared behind him. Tawny swung his body around and dug her nails into the back of his skull as she pulled his face to hers.

As she took him in a kiss, Jack repelled backward and shoved the cloth soaked in holy water down into the back of her mouth.

She gagged and clasped her throat before snatching the rag and throwing it to the ground, her hand turning an ugly gray as she held it. Jack didn't let up, coming at her with his knife another time. She spun and let out another wild, shrill scream, her eyes now blood-red and gold. The blade cut through the air-

And Tawny disappeared in a blink of an eye. Her cries were suddenly distant.

Jack pivoted in all directions, confused.

His vision darted to the tree where he and Fi had left Mickey Andrews, but Mickey had also vanished.

He was all alone.

* * *

><p>Fi still had her knife drawn when Tawny reappeared in front of her, her disturbing scream suddenly hitting Fi's ears right before Tawny dragged her nails across Fi's chest.<p>

"Your brother's dead!" she shouted in a twisted tone. Her skin was now graying and wrinkled and her eyes shone gold in the moonlight.

Fi shut Tawny out. Nothing was going to stop her now. She couldn't let her get away again. Tawny extended her palm as she had done moments earlier. Her blood-stained eyes focused on Fi as an eerie grin spread across her face. Fi took the opportunity to plunge the knife deep into Tawny's ribs. She felt something snap as she twisted the blade, but Tawny managed to disappear on her another time.

* * *

><p>Notably weaker, Tawny fell to her knees and let out a haunting scream in Jack's direction.<p>

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" Jack hissed. "You're flipping channels. That's where you keep disappearing to."

Jack aimed his gun and shot a silver bullet into her chest, a move that only seemed to infuriate her.

"I hope you enjoy this dual ass-kicking then." He winked sarcastically as Tawny vanished from sight a second time.

* * *

><p>As soon as she reemerged from the blackness of night, Fi jabbed her knife through the monster's chest. Another all-too-familiar shrill cry emanated from her gray mouth. Her hair was now a thinning, pale white, making the succubus much easier to detect against the dark backdrop of the lake. She took a bit longer than the last time to make herself disappear.<p>

* * *

><p>She reappeared on her hands and knees on the shore of the lake. Jack lifted her head up by her hair, disgusted when a handful came detached from her skull in his grasp. He kicked her onto her back and drove his knife into an already-existing wound in her chest plate. Her body flickered in and out of sight twice before Jack found himself alone once more.<p>

* * *

><p>Fi expected the succubus to show herself again shortly. Jack couldn't be dead - the monster kept coming back weaker, and she knew her brother was the reason. Whatever power Tawny had over his dreams, she was hardly a match for a pissed-off Jack.<p>

Her thoughts were broken by cold hands suddenly tightening around her neck, coming face-to-face with a horribly mutated image of Tawny Wyatt. The monster sneered and showed its pencil-thin, yellowed teeth, its lips curled back so far they were no longer visible. Fi's feet dangled underneath her. Her hands went limp and she dropped her knife as her vision began to blur.

Just as she felt herself becoming lightheaded, she was falling back to the ground, soaking wet. Her vision cleared and she watched on in astonishment as the succubus fell forward and turned to ash, her body dissipating with a sudden breeze.

Jack's shape emerged from behind the swirling cloud of ash. He was holding something. A trash can maybe? Fi couldn't make it out in the dark, or figure out where he would have gotten it from.

"Fi?" he shouted, making his way toward his sister. He scooped her head up in his arms. A look of concern came across his face when her eyes fluttered.

"We did it, Fi. I woke myself up, blessed the lake... A lake full of holy water- I can't believe it worked. The bitch melted like the Wicked Witch of the West!" he babbled, suppressing his urge to cry from relief or joy or seeing his baby sister alive and back at his side.

He lowered Fi's head back to the earth and let himself collapse beside her, still laughing like a kid at his own cleverness.

* * *

><p>The siblings woke up as daylight peaked over the edge of the lake. Surprisingly, it was Fi who rose first and helped her brother to his feet. He lifted his arms up, twisting his back, still sore from the fight.<p>

Fi kneeled down next to Mickey Andrews, who remained slumped against the same tree where they had left him. The color had returned to his face. He opened his eyes just enough to observe Fi looking back at him, and fell back asleep.

"Fi Phillips, nice to meet you," she said, shaking the hand that hung by his side.

She and Jack carried the man to the Mustang and gave him a ride to the hospital.

* * *

><p>"What'd you tell them?" Jack asked Fi when she returned to the passenger seat.<p>

"I said we saw his sneaker sticking out from the grass on the side of the road, stopped, brought him here. He's going to be fine. The nurse called us heroes," she mused.

"It's about time someone acknowledged us for what we are."

"Yeah, yeah."

"What about the police - They gonna go check it out? Dig up those bodies?" he questioned over the growl of the Mustang.

"They've already sent some guys down there. They found Mickey's car at the bottom of the lake… probably a lot more judging by those graves. If only we had gotten here sooner…"

"Fi, we saved a guy. Two if you count the poor bastard we left stranded with a flat tire. And who knows how many others that thing would have got if we hadn't stopped her."

Fi didn't answer. She had her phone in her palm, her thumb dragging itself up and down the center button. Jack took his eyes off the road to observe the mindless gesture. He bit the inside of his jaw a few times and shifted his line of vision to the steering wheel as the Mustang rolled to a stop at a red light. He peaked up into the rear-view mirror - no cars behind them, no cars in front of them. He turned to Fi, grimacing.

It took her a moment to notice.

"What? ...oh, sorry, I must've zoned out," she explained.

"It's time, Fi. Call it. I've seen you go through your phone about a hundred times, stopping on his name, letting your finger hover over the 'send' button. Just do it, hit the damn button. Listen to his voicemail message. No one's going to judge you for it."

She didn't sigh or protest as Jack had expected. She repeated the action Jack described another time before exhaling and hitting "send."

She reluctantly brought the phone up to her ear and held her breath as it rang.

Finally, Fi heard the click of the cueing voicemail. She tensed up, unsure of how she'd react at hearing his voice again after everything she'd been through these past few weeks on the road.

"I'm sorry. Your party cannot be reached. This number may be out of service-"

She silenced the automated voice coming out of the earpiece. Jack heard the whole thing. His chest sank for her as her eyes clouded. She gave a half-laugh, half-sniffle, and redirected her attention out the window.

"Fi, I'm sorry," Jack started to say.

"Drive. Just drive..."


End file.
